Manchester Airport Runway 2

Customer: Manchester Airport plc

Value: £10.0 million

During this earthworks contract, a tunnel was created at the point where the runway passes over the River Bollin. The river valley was infilled to create an embankment over which the runway crossed the river. This meant that approximately 2.5 million m3 of earth had to be moved from either side of the valley. The inherent poor quality of materials encountered, in excess of 300,000m³, necessitated various methods of earthworks, including:

Stockpiling to enable material drying

Phased filling to allow reduction in moisture content

Mixing good quality and poor quality materials at the point of excavation to achieve an acceptable fill.

Addition of lime to reduce the high moisture content

Breaking out and processing of 40,000m3 of existing aprons and foundation to produce capping and drainage layer.

At the peak of the earthmoving season, VHE had over 100 items of plant on site and was excavating in excess of 120,000m3 of earth per week.